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The Bharatiya Jana Sangh (abbreviated BJS, and often known simply as the Jan Sangh) existed from 1951 to 1980, whereupon it was succeeded by the Bharatiya Janata Party
Bharatiya Janata Party

The Bharatiya Janata Party , founded in 1980, is a major political party of India. Designed to represent the country's Hinduism and Centre-right in nature, the party advocates Conservatism social policies, self reliance, robust economic growth, foreign policy driven by a nationalist agenda, and strong national defense....
, one of India's largest political parties. Its name means Indian People's Alliance in Hindi
Hindi

Standard Hindi, also known as High Hindi, Nagari Hindi or Literary Hindi is a Standard language register of Hindi. It is one of the 22 official languages of India, and is used, along with English language, for administration of the central government....
.

BJS was started by Syama Prasad Mookerjee
Syama Prasad Mookerjee

Syama Prasad Mookerjee was a nationalist political leader of India, and is considered the godfather of modern Hindutva and Hindu Nationalism....
 on 21 October 1951 at Delhi
Delhi

Delhi , sometimes referred to as Dilli , is the List of most populous cities in India metropolis in India and, with over 11 million residents, the List of metropolitan areas by population....
 in consultation with the RSS
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh , also known as the Sangh or the RSS, is a Hindu nationalist organization in India. It was founded in 1925 by Dr....
. The symbol of the party in Indian elections was an oil-lamp.






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The Bharatiya Jana Sangh (abbreviated BJS, and often known simply as the Jan Sangh) existed from 1951 to 1980, whereupon it was succeeded by the Bharatiya Janata Party
Bharatiya Janata Party

The Bharatiya Janata Party , founded in 1980, is a major political party of India. Designed to represent the country's Hinduism and Centre-right in nature, the party advocates Conservatism social policies, self reliance, robust economic growth, foreign policy driven by a nationalist agenda, and strong national defense....
, one of India's largest political parties. Its name means Indian People's Alliance in Hindi
Hindi

Standard Hindi, also known as High Hindi, Nagari Hindi or Literary Hindi is a Standard language register of Hindi. It is one of the 22 official languages of India, and is used, along with English language, for administration of the central government....
.

Origins

The BJS was started by Syama Prasad Mookerjee
Syama Prasad Mookerjee

Syama Prasad Mookerjee was a nationalist political leader of India, and is considered the godfather of modern Hindutva and Hindu Nationalism....
 on 21 October 1951 at Delhi
Delhi

Delhi , sometimes referred to as Dilli , is the List of most populous cities in India metropolis in India and, with over 11 million residents, the List of metropolitan areas by population....
 in consultation with the RSS
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh , also known as the Sangh or the RSS, is a Hindu nationalist organization in India. It was founded in 1925 by Dr....
. The symbol of the party in Indian elections was an oil-lamp. In 1952 general elections to the Parliament of India
Parliament of India

The Parliament of India is the Federal government and supreme legislative body of India. It consists of the office of President of India and two houses, the lower house, known as the Lok Sabha and the upper house, known as the Rajya Sabha.....
, Bharatiya Jana Sangh had won three seats; Mookerjee being one of the winning candidates. The BJS would often link up on issues and debates with the right-wing Swatantra Party
Swatantra Party

The Swatantra Party was a political party in India founded by Chakravarti Rajagopalachari in August, 1959. The party opposed the Nehruvian socialism outlook of the Indian National Congress by advocating free enterprise, opposing the so-called Licence Raj, and ending India's economic autarky by courting Western investment....
 of Chakravarti Rajgopalachari. Its strongest parliamentary performance came in the 1967 elections, when the Congress majority was its thinnest-ever.

Hindu nationalism

See also: Hindu nationalism
Hindu nationalism

Hindu nationalism is a nationalism ideology that sees the modern state of the India as a Hindu polity , and seeks to preserve the Hindu heritage....
, Hindutva
Hindutva

Hindutva is the term used to describe movements advocating Hindu nationalism.In India, an umbrella organization called the Sangh Parivar champions the concept of Hindutva....


The BJS was ideologically close to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh , also known as the Sangh or the RSS, is a Hindu nationalist organization in India. It was founded in 1925 by Dr....
, and derived most of its political activist base and candidates from the RSS ranks. The BJS was considered the political arm of Hindu Nationalism
Hindu nationalism

Hindu nationalism is a nationalism ideology that sees the modern state of the India as a Hindu polity , and seeks to preserve the Hindu heritage....
, with the RSS being the central base. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad, formed in 1964 would become the religious arm.

The BJS also attracted many conservative members of the Indian National Congress
Indian National Congress

Indian National Congress-I is a major political party in India. Founded in 1885 by Dadabhai Naoroji, Dinshaw Edulji Wacha, Womesh Chandra Bonerjee, Surendranath Banerjee, Monomohun Ghose, Allan Octavian Hume, and William Wedderburn, the Indian National Congress became the leader of the Indian Independence Movement, with over 15 million memb...
 who were disenchanted with the more socialist policies and politics of Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru

Jawaharlal Nehru The son of the wealthy Indian barrister and politician Motilal Nehru, Nehru became a leader of the left-wing of the Indian National Congress at a remarkably young age....
 and the Congress Party. The BJS's strongest constituencies were in Rajasthan
Rajasthan

Rajasthan is the largest States and territories of India of the Republic of India in terms of area. It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Great Indian Desert , which has an edge paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its border with Pakistan....
, Gujarat
Gujarat

Gujarat is a States and territories of India in western India. Gujarat borders Pakistan to the north west and the state of Rajasthan to the north and northeast, Madhya Pradesh to the east, Maharashtra and the Union territory of Diu, Daman District, India, Dadra and Nagar Haveli to the south....
, Maharashtra
Maharashtra

Maharashtra is a States and territories of India located on the western coast of India. Maharashtra is a part of Western India. It is India's List of states of India by area and List of states of India by population....
, Madhya Pradesh
Madhya Pradesh

Madhya Pradesh , often called the Heart of India, is a States and territories of India in central India. Its capital is Bhopal. Madhya Pradesh was originally the largest state in India until November 1, 2000 when the state of Chhattisgarh was carved out....
 and Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh , [often referred to as U.P.] is a States and territories of India located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 190 million people,...
.

The BJS leadership strongly supported a stringent policy against Pakistan
Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located in South Asia and borders Central Asia and the Middle East. It has a 1,046 kilometre coastline along the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman in the south, and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and People's Republic of China in th...
 and China
China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
, and were averse to the USSR and political Communism
Communism

Communism is a socioeconomic structure and political ideology that promotes the establishment of an egalitarianism, classlessness, stateless society based on common ownership and control of the means of production and property in general....
 in India. Many BJS leaders also inaugurated the drive to ban cow slaughter nationwide in the early 1960s.

Emergency

In 1975, Indira Gandhi
Indira Gandhi

Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi was the Prime Minister of the Republic of India for three consecutive terms from 1966 to 1977and for a fourth term from 1980 until her Assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984, a total of fifteen years....
 declared a state of Emergency, and threw many major opposition politicians in jail including the leaders of the BJS. In 1977, the Emergency was withdrawn, and elections were held. The BJS, joined forces with the Bharatiya Lok Dal
Bharatiya Lok Dal

Bharatiya Lok Dal was a political party in India. The BLD was formed at the end of 1974 through the fusion of seven parties opposed to the autocratic rule of Indira Gandhi, including the Swatantra Party, the Utkal Congress, the Bharatiya Kranti Dal, and the Socialist Party ....
, the Congress (O), and the Socialist Party
Socialist Party (India)

Socialist Party has been the name of several political party in India, all of which have their roots in the Congress Socialist Party formed during the freedom struggle....
, to form the Janata Party
Janata Party

The Janata Party was an Indian political party that contested the Indian Emergency and became the first political party to defeat the Indian National Congress in the 1977 Lok Sabha elections, forming the central government from 1977 to 1980....
 (People's Party). The Janata Party became the first Indian government not led by the Indian National Congress
Indian National Congress

Indian National Congress-I is a major political party in India. Founded in 1885 by Dadabhai Naoroji, Dinshaw Edulji Wacha, Womesh Chandra Bonerjee, Surendranath Banerjee, Monomohun Ghose, Allan Octavian Hume, and William Wedderburn, the Indian National Congress became the leader of the Indian Independence Movement, with over 15 million memb...
. Former BJS leaders Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Atal Bihari Vajpayee

Atal Bihari Vajpayee served as the thirteenth and sixteenth Prime Minister of India. After a brief stint as Prime Minister in 1996, Vajpayee headed a coalition government from October 13, 1999 until May 19, 2004....
 and L. K. Advani became the External Affairs (Foreign), and Information and Broadcasting Ministers respectively.

New BJP

After the Janata Party's poor showing in the 1980 elections, the former Bharatiya Jan Sangh members left to form the Bharatiya Janata Party
Bharatiya Janata Party

The Bharatiya Janata Party , founded in 1980, is a major political party of India. Designed to represent the country's Hinduism and Centre-right in nature, the party advocates Conservatism social policies, self reliance, robust economic growth, foreign policy driven by a nationalist agenda, and strong national defense....
, which has been one of the three largest Indian political parties since 1989.

See also

  • Indian Nationalism
    Indian nationalism

    Indian Nationalism describes the many underlying forces that moulded the Indian independence movement, and strongly continue to influence the politics of India, as well as being the heart of many contrasting ideologies that have caused ethnic and religious conflict in Indian society....
  • Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar
    Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

    Vinayak Damodar Savarkar was an Indian politician and an Indian Independence Movement activist, who is credited with developing the Hindu nationalist political ideology Hindutva....
    , Lal Krishna Advani
    Lal Krishna Advani

    Lal Krishna Advani , also known as Lalchand Kishenchand Advani is an Indian politician and a former president of the Bharatiya Janata Party....
    , Balraj Madhok
    Balraj Madhok

    Balraj Madhok was a former president of Bharatiya Jan Sangh and a senior politician of India in 1960s . He was born at Skardu in the former princely state of Kashmir and Jammu ....